Only The Ringer Finger Knows
by unwashedace
Summary: Dean lost the amulet his brother Sam gave him for Christmas. His fellow Gryffindor, Charlie suggests that he should check out the enchanted lost and found in the entrance hall to see if it is keeping it there for him. There he finds a magic ring that does not belong to him and keeps it, because why not? (Hogwarts AU, Castiel/Dean, Charlie/OC)


**Author's Note:**

I have never written any sort of fanfiction before. I have been reading fanfiction since I was 9 years old and never had the confidence until now to give it a try. As of late I have been pretty taken with the Supernatural fanfiction community and the exploration of Asexuality and Demisexuality and was delighted to see some fun Hogwarts-AU stories.

My challenge to myself, aside from embarking on this fanfic in the first place was to write a storyline that included Charlie. I am going to be upfront and say that I have never cared for Charlie in the TV show. I thought it was a bad writing choice that never made much sense me to include her rather than fleshing out some of their other established femme characters… but I made a solid effort to follow through with my Charlie side-story that involves an OC that I thought would be appropriate due to my feelings that Charlie is definitely a Mary Sue of sorts.

The title of the story was taken from a popular shounen-ai Manga I read when I was 15. The plot of for the main Dean/Castiel storyline was inspired by a writing prompt I found on a Harry Potter fan page. _**  
**_  
All right. Enough talk. Let's go.

 **Chapter One  
**

The lost and found trunk at Hogwarts was situated in the entrance hall of the castle. It was large but inoffensive; decorated in blue and gold with the words _accipe hoc_ engraved above the latch in swirling ornate letters. Dean was surprisingly decent at Latin and as if replying to the trunk breathed, "don't mind if I do…" before lifting the lid to take a peak inside.

Dean had lost the amulet his brother Sam had given him as a Christmas present last year. He had lost it between classes a few days ago and all he had to show for it now was the snapped black chord that he had used to keep it tied around his neck with. He had been searching the hallways, classrooms, and Gryffindor tower for it. It was only after he looked like he was going to start screaming in frustration while he tore out the crimson seat cushions of the stuffed armchair did Charlie mention the lost and found.

"It's enchanted to find lost items and transport them to the trunk! If the trunk recovers a lost item only it's owner will be able to see it there. Pretty cool, huh!"  
Dean shot his best friend a look of utter disbelief, "And you're only telling me this now? Where was this information three days ago?"  
Charlie bit her lip then said, "Ah, oops?"

Dean bent forward and looked further into the trunk. A relieved smile spread across his face. "Yahtzee," he said snatching the brass horned figurehead from the bottom of the enchanted trunk. He hastily stuffed the amulet into the pocket of his robes. He was about to head back to Gryffindor tower when he noticed something else resting inside the trunk, it gleamed at Dean curiously.

Confused, Dean picked up the ring and examined it. Dean did not own any rings and if he had this would not be the sort of jewellery he would be at all attracted to. It was gold and gilded with what looked like an olive branch design. The branches were entangled and if Dean held the ring close enough to his face he could see that the branches were moving a little, hugging each other into an even tighter bond as he rolled the ring between his index finger and thumb. It was a self-indulgent conceptual design that must have cost a few galleons to own. It was not his style _at all_.

So why did it appear when he opened the trunk? Maybe the trunk was malfunctioning, Dean thought.

He gave the ring another considering look; there was something so enticing about the small halo of metal that Dean wanted to figure out. Whenever he looked at it his ears hummed like there was blood pounding between them, except the anxiety and fear that was normally attached with the sensation was not there. It was pleasurable. Making up his mind Dean hid it away in the same pocket as the amulet, because why not? He thought harmlessly before closing the trunk and racing back to meet his friends who were waiting for him in the Gryffindor common room.

Benny, Charlie, Dean and Ash were crowded around the Gryffindor common room table, their spell books, inkbottles, quills and parchment splayed out before them in a confusing mess. A few times Dean caught himself writing on Ash's notes instead of his own parchment and when he noticed too late he would look up at Ash apologetically. "Sorry, man," Dean offered and each time Ash shrugged it off. Ash was a third year student and he was nowhere near as stressed as the other three. Probably because Ash was a bona fide genius, Dean thought, a crusty genius with randy hair.

Benny waved his wand at a crumpled up piece of parchment on the table, he was practising his Knockback jinx and when the parchment burst into flames he just stared at it with a confused expression. He made no move to put out the fire as he contemplated his results.

"Weren't you paying attention to Professor Singer? Don't practise on flammable objects!" Charlie scolded before waving her wand at the fire, " _aguamenti!_ " a small jet of water flowed out from her wand tip to put out the fire, consequentially soaking Benny's open spell book in the process.

"Anything can be flammable," Benny pointed out, "it's magic." He picked up his spell book and attempted to shake the pages free of water before he lifted his wand arm up, Ash reflexively put his hand over his friend's wand tip, "Don't!" he warned.

Dean was only half paying attention to his friends. He was busy working on his Care of Magical Creatures essay; that was mostly just an inner struggle for him to not write in large printed letters as he ran out of things to say. How much of an opinion could he really have about the ideal habitat for a Billywig? Not a large enough one he was realizing as he looked over the one and a half pages he had written so far—he needed two more pages still.

"What's a less douchie way of saying _thus_?" Dean asked; his frayed feather quill poised over his last sentence.

"Therefore?" Ash offered.

Dean wrote it down, then paused and then crossed the word out; he had already lost his train of thought.

Exasperated, Dean put his quill down, and leaned back in his chair. He was tired of sitting around; he could smell himself and he could still taste the weak sugary tea Benny had brought them an hour ago on the inside of his cheeks. Christmas holidays were two weeks away and Dean was ready to take a load off. He wanted to spend time with Sam. Not just half-assedly waving to him as they passed each other in the hallways. His brother was old enough to go to Hogsmede now and Dean wanted to be the one to give him the grand tour. It was his brotherly right as far as he was concerned.

Dean stuffed both his hands into the pockets of his robes, and toyed with its contents. He could feel the amulet, a grimy sickle and a lump of lint before his fingers rediscovered the ring. Dean felt along the grooves of the gold design. He could tell the ring was buzzing with excitement from his touch because of the low ringing that was building up between his was washed over in a soothing calmness. His eyelids drooped in relaxation. Feeling good, he warmed the gold ring between his thumb and fingers; visibly shuddering as he absentmindedly slipped the metal onto his ring finger.

"Ah!" Dean bolted up in his seat. He pulled his left hand free from his robes, "The hell?"

His friends all turned to look at him.

"What's wrong, Dean?" Benny asked, eyes darting from the other boy's face then to the hand Dean was staring at in horror.

Dean did not answer him. The pleasant effects of the ring had stopped and it was squeezing the hell out of his finger. Dean watched as the gold olive branches flexed like a muscle before latching onto him. Was it piercing his skin?

"Ow! What the fuck!" Dean tried tugging the ring off with his other hand. "Must be cursed!"

His friends continued to watch Dean struggle with the offending jewellery.

Ash screwed up his face when he got a better look at the ring, "That's some tacky ass Mr. T level crap you got there, man."

"Shut up! It's not mine!" Deansaid, sobering up from his initial freak out to glare at the younger boy.

"Who's Mr. T?" Benny asked.

Charlie rolled her eyes and seized Dean's left hand and brought it up to her eye-level. The redhead examined the ring without touching it, and then gently with an air of caution tapped the metal with her index finger. "Ouch!" she withdrew her hand, "It zapped me!"

"What does it mean?" Dean asked her, "Is my dick going to fall off?"

Benny whistled in amusement, his blue eyes sparkling, "It means you got yourself there a promise ring, brother!"

"A promise ring?" Charlie looked at Dean like she thought he was insane, "Dean, who gave you this promise ring? Oh no. Please don't tell me you're dating Talbot again! She's a total bitch, Dean! You can't trust her!"

Ash shook his head, "Bela Talbot? No, she's hot!"

"If this were D and D she would be chaotic evil!" Charlie spat.

Ash shrugged, "Hot is hot."

"What are you talking about? D and what?" Dean heard Benny say.

"She's evil!"

"What's a promise ring?" Dean said, raising his voice to speak over his friends, he was a little less worried now. If Charlie had the capacity to be distracted by her ongoing rivalry with Bela then he was sure that his dick was going to be fine. "Do I need to go to the Hospital Wing?"

Ash ran a hand through his slick hair, "Nah, if you wanna take that," he pointed to the ring, "off you are going to have to break it off with whoever gave it to you."

"No one gave me this," Dean told them, "I found it in the lost and found."

"Are you insane?" Charlie yelped, "We live in a magic castle, we learn about cursed objects everyday and you put a ring that an enchanted box just whipped up for you? You don't deserve to have a dick!"

Dean gaped at her.

"It's gotta belong to somebody," Ash interrupted, "Here," he held up a hand and wiggled his fingers in Dean's direction. "Let me see."

Dean extended his hand to the younger boy and allowed him to turn his hand over to access the ring, " _aparecium_ ," Ash tapped his wand against the ring then lifted it away to watch what happened next. The gold olive branches relaxed as if exhaling breath before unwinding to reveal a line of beaming blue script.

 _Castiel Novak_

"Castiel?" Dean's squinted at the ring, "Castiel?"

"Oh! Castiel!" Charlie shoved Dean's shoulder excitedly, "He's in our advanced Potions class. He's really nice! I am sure he will help you out."

"Wait," Dean felt his stomach do a nauseating flip, "Castiel, the weird dude with the staring problem? I'm…" he hesitated, "We're dating _?_ I'm dating a _dude_!"

Charlie glared at him and Ash looked at him pointedly.

Dean's ears turned pink with embarrassment, "OK, so how do I fix this?" he asked avoiding Charlie's gaze.

Benny leaned forward in his seat and rested his elbows on the table, telling Dean straight from the shoulder that he would just have to fill the Hufflepuff in on the situation. Then ask him for a mutual separation of sorts, "and then the ring should come off."

"No spell, no nothin'?"

Benny shook his head, "It's just a dumb couple's thing. I'll bet you anything Castiel isn't going to be too thrilled when he finds out you're wearing his ring. That thing isn't going to be exactly easy to keep secret."

Dean looked down at his hand. The ring was not at all subtle about the object of its affections. Castiel's name was still beaming obnoxiously up at him; anyone within five feet of Dean was going notice to it. It was about as discreet as a lighthouse on a dark clear night.

"All the girls are gunna flip their lids!" Ash laughed.

Great. Just great, he groaned, returning to his Care of Magical Creatures essay. Just fucking great.

 **Chapter End Notes:**  
I personally think that within the wizarding world Charlie would be more inclined to listen to her teachers.

I am trying my best to keep the characters _in_ character but if anyone has constructive criticism I am all ears.


End file.
